Fwd: Principles for nation building

[Art Hunter]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Fernande Faulkner <fernande...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 17, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Subject: Principles for nation building
To: David dougherty Dougherty <directf...@hotmail.com>, Art Hunter <art....@gmail.com>

Principles for nation building

The following broad principles could be considered when deciding on national building projects to help reshape Canada’s future economy and society.

1. Provide the broadest possible impacts for as large and diverse groups of Canadians.
2. Reduce Canada’s reliance on the US and diversify our trading markets.
3. Develop new skills and expertise of Canadian workers for long term use.
4. Select transformative projects to position Canada in the future ecosystems of advanced technologies and space.
5. Uphold our national and international commitments on climate change. I.e. Paris Agreement.
6. Develop our North, respecting indigenous rights and environmental concerns.
7. Address bottlenecks in deciding where to build so as to have a synergetic impact on many other sectors. I.e. Storing energy in batteries to address intermittencies.
8. Increase living standards for Canadians, for example by increasing affordable housing and more extensive transportation.
9. Build a strong Canadian identity in youth. I.e. expand Katimavik.
10. Engage the Canadian population in a rapid participative process to decide on their future. I.e.Citizen’s Committee.

Note to David and Art,

I am sorry I did not send this at the same time I sent it to David Pollack who asked for it, as I assumed that you had received it.  I sent it the address that Art had used in posting his commentary.  At our last Friday meeting I assumed that the principles had been received and retransmitted.  Feel free to add them. 

By now I am sure these have already been integrated in the work of David Dougherty and David Pollack.  Looking at the list I have since felt that it could be shortened and the language further abbreviated and to omit the illustrations. I could work further on principles if it would be useful to your process. 

I look forward to responding to their amended five principles. 

I recommend that we submit every project being considered to a vetting process using the five or so principles and testing their range and suitability.  

It is gratifying to see the work of CACOR advocacy take shape in this way.

Fernande

Sent from my iPad

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Art Hunter- Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (canadiancor.com)

What we do  (436) CACOR Splash v5 - YouTube

YouTube postings CACOR YouTube - Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (canadiancor.com)

[Ruben Nelson]

Thank you Fernande for a cut at Principles for Nation Building.  A couple of comments:

·         “Nation building” is not a language that is much used in Canada in the 20^th or 21^st Centuries.  We noticed this in 1963 when Heather and I lived in India.  Talk of “nation building” was all over India.  When asked about Nation building in Canada we had to say, “Sorry, but in Canada we do not use this language, at least not since the 19^th Century.  Possibly it is because we think we are already “built” as a nation; that all we need to do is keep improving and strengthening Canada, not build it.”  Seems to me this is still the case.  Yes, we need a language that captures the moves we now need to make, but “nation building” will not likely do.  I am open to suggestions.

·         Taken individually and as a set, these 10 principles continue to assume that we can create a sustainable and humane nation within the Modern Techno-Industrial (MTI) frames of reference which define our MTI Canadian culture.  There is nothing surprising here.  The MTI frames of reference are so deeply absorbed into the consciousness of MTI cultures that most folks do not even know they are acting within frames of reference they have absorbed by processes that might be called unconscious “cultural osmosis.”  The options we are offered all assume the MTI frames, even those now labelled as “transformative.”  None reach what might be called the “escape velocity” needed to transcend MTI frames of reference. 

·         What is interesting is that we in CACOR appear to have only a marginally greater interest in identifying and understanding these frames in order to transcend them than the Canadian culture at large.  This project is not really on our agenda.

·         Maybe instead of aspiring to “nation building”, we need to aspire to projects which nurture our capacity to “transcend our MTI formation at every scale from personal to national to civilizational.”  What principles might we use to identify such projects?

Ruben  

 

Ruben (Butch) Nelson

403-609-1016

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[Mike Nickerson]

 What principles might we use to identify such projects?

We could encourage more participation in activities that originate in our human natures than with articles manufactured by the Modern Techno-Industrial superstructure.

Or so it seems to me.

Yours, Mike N. 

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[Ruben Nelson]

Mike,

Amen to your comment.

One principle might be that the project be undertaken with the explicit intention of helping us transcend our formation as MTI Person in MTI cultures.

Ruben

 

Ruben (Butch) Nelson

403-609-1016

 

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